HE Provider Data: Finance – Open data release 2019/20

Total income for UK HE providers whose financial year matched the 2019/20 academic year was £40.8 billion with expenditure of £37.3 billion.

View HE Provider Data: Finance

When added to results for HE providers with different financial year end dates the combined income for all UK HE providers was £41.9 billion. This includes some accounts submitted before the onset of the Covid pandemic.

Of the 183 HE providers with a standard financial year end date of 31 July 2020, 120 reported a surplus for the 2019/20 year and 63 reported a deficit.¹

As well as income and expenditure today’s release includes balance sheet information showing current assets of £21 billion for providers with a standard year end date, and capital expenditure data showing a total spend of £4.1 billion. Further tables show providers’ sources of income, categories of expenditure, cash flow, and senior staff pay.

Normally published in March or April today’s open data release HE Provider Data: Finance was delayed due to the Covid pandemic. HE providers were given extra time by funders and regulators to publish their audited accounts. Key Financial Indicators for 2019/20 will be published in due course when the impacts of 2018/19 pension cost adjustments have been calculated.

Notes

1. Some HE providers saw significant cost adjustments in both 2018/19 and 2019/20, relating to the accounting treatment for the value of pension schemes. This appears as a significant additional cost in 2018/19, which caused some providers to report deficits, and an opposite movement in 2019/20, which caused some providers to show unusually large surpluses. This additional cost is an accounting, non-cash, adjustment. It is not a typical annual operating expense/credit for these providers and therefore caution is advised in any interpretation of financial operating performance in 2018/19 and 2019/20.
2. See Definitions: Finances for full definitions of terms used in the release and explanation of the coverage of statistics
3. See Upcoming data releases for a schedule of Official Statistics releases from HESA.
4. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.